5 Ways Freelance Writers Can Use the iPhone 5

The world can finally exhale. At 1:13 EST today, months of speculation culminated in Tim Cook’s unveiling of the iPhone 5, the sixth incarnation of the world’s most popular smart phone, at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Arts Center.

While some freelance writers are still working out the transition from desktop to laptop, many are trying to figure out how to downsize even further, from laptop to handheld device. And that’s where the iPhone 5 can make your life a whole lot easier, especially if you’re already using Mac products.

Here are five ways freelance writers can use the iPhone 5.

1. Record interviews. As far back as the iPhone 3G, you could record high quality audio clips using the phone’s built-in tools. Now the iPhone 5’s ultrafast wireless and three microphones will also help you conduct interviews live or via Skype and FaceTime.

2. Shoot video and produce multimedia content. The iPhone 5 comes with 720p HD recording and face detection in FaceTime, making it great for shooting talking heads. You can even take pictures while shooting video. Wow. What a great way to capture events, press conferences and impromptu newsables, and produce solid content that you can upsell to editors who use multimedia on their websites or companies working doing brand journalism and thought leadership. Apple has updated Garage Band and iMovie so editing is sure to be a snap.

3. Take pictures to illustrate your stories. Don’t want to lug a heavy DSLR around while reporting in the field? Don’t—use the iPhone 5. With eight megapixels, panorama mode, 44 percent more color saturation than the iPhone 4S, and 640 x 1136 resolution, a nice aspect ratio to prevent weird stretching, now you can easily deliver stunning, web ready images along with your stellar prose.

4. To figure out what you’re doing and where you’re going. Enhanced mapping features make it easier than ever to map your route on the go. There’s a new, improved Siri to keep you on task and iPhone 5’s four-inch screen makes it easier to use apps like Andrew Nicolle’s recently released Story Tracker for Mac, which allows users to track queries, submissions and other project info via laptop or mobile device. Any apps that aren’t being updated for iPhone 5 or iOS 6 as I type will run letter boxed.

5. For absolutely everything else in your life. With the iPhone 5, Apple’s put out another lovely updated design—one that’s which 7.6 mm thick, 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the previous generation and reportedly fits better in the hand. The bigger screen with 326 pixel per inch (ppi) retina display to enhanced mapping means you won’t want to stop looking at it.